Tuesday, 31 March 2009

Quiet start to the week

I'm all for democracy, except when it expects me to participate. My brush with the court system this week (and it really is only a brush) has involved hour upon hour of sitting in the lounge and not being called to sit on a jury panel. This is a whole new level of boredom (which makes things previously labelled as boring totally fascinating) as one is limited in what one can do in as much as whatever one took with one in the morning - mostly (for me) books and Sudoko puzzles with a little 'getting acquainted' with the "New Rules of Measurement" for light relief. Whilst I appreciate that the whole jury selection thing has a process to follow I still cannot shake the feeling of already having wasted two days of my week. Civic duty be damned, I'd rather be at work!

There was a charming moment on my way to the court yesterday, as I walked down the street I passed a house whose youngest inhabitants can only have been watching Mary Poppins at the weekend. The pavement was adorned with chalk picturess, one of which even had an elaborate frame around it! There was also a little glass jar on the wall with dandelions (and other weeds) and a sign which advertised 'Free flowers - please take one'. That made me smile all the way to the bus stop.